Image forming system and clear coating apparatus

Abstract

A image forming system that can prevent a toner from coming off while reducing the amount of consumption of a clear toner in binding sheets into a book. An image forming apparatus 100 forms an image on a sheet. A clear coating apparatus 200 forms a clear coating image on the sheet using the clear toner that becomes transparent after fixing. A bookbinding apparatus 600 connected to the image forming apparatus 100 and the clear coating apparatus 200 subjects the sheet to folding process. A job controller 501 and an image controller 502 cause the clear coating apparatus 200 to form the clear toner image at a folding position on the sheet in response to designation of a folding mode in the bookbinding apparatus 600.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to an image forming system in which an image forming apparatus which forms an image on a sheet, a clear coating apparatus which forms a clear coating image using a clear toner that becomes transparent after fixing, and a bookbinding apparatus are connected.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]The demand for improved image quality has been increasing in recent years with respect to full-color electrophotographic image forming apparatuses (image forming apparatuses). In addition, as the use of digital cameras is also increasing in popularity, there is a demand for image modes for a high-image quality photographic tone to be realized in electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.[0005]Image forming systems have been proposed in which an image forming apparatus and a clear coating apparatus are connected. In these systems, after outputting an image having a high-quality photographic ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]The present invention provides an image forming system and a clear toner apparatus that can prevent a toner from coming off while reducing the amount of consumption of a clear toner in binding sheets into a book.

[0015]Moreover, in a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a clear coating apparatus that is connected to a bookbinding apparatus adapted to subject at least one sheet to a folding process, comprising a clear coating unit adapted to form a clear coat on the at least one sheet using a clear toner that becomes transparent after fixing, and a controller is adapted to, when the at least one sheet is subjected to a folding process by the bookbinding apparatus, cause the clear coating unit to form a clear coat at a folding position of the at least one sheet.

[0016]According to the present invention, it is possible to form the clear coating image at only the folding position in which the toner fixed tends to come off using the minimum amount of the clear toner without the operation burden of the user. Therefore, it is also possible to prevent the toner from coming off while reducing the amount of consumption of the clear toner in binding sheets into the book.

Problems solved by technology

In the conventional image forming system comprising a bookbinding apparatus, there has been a problem that when a sheet on which a toner image has been fixed is folded at the bookbinding apparatus, the toner comes off at the folding position of the sheet.

There has also been a problem that, even when the toner that has been fixed at the folding position does not come off at the time of bookbinding, the user opens or closes the bound sheets or contacts a folding position with some object so that the toner at the folding position comes oft.

When the toner that has been fixed at the folding position comes off, the quality of the binding declines, the appearance becomes poor, and the toner that has come off dirties the area around the bound sheets.

Although a counter measure can be considered in which a toner image is not formed at a sheet folding position in order to solve the above problem, when a toner image is not formed at a folding position on the front cover, in particular, the appearance deteriorates.

Further, although forming a clear coating image using the aforementioned clear toner can also be considered as a counter measure to solve the aforementioned problems, when clear toner is used on the entire surface of a sheet it leads to a waste of the clear toner.

Furthermore, although a counter measure may be considered in which the user specifies a position for image formation using clear toner on each individual sheet, this increases the operation burden of the user.

Further, when performing a process in which the center of sheets is stapled and the sheets are then folded, if a clear coat is applied to all the sheets, there are cases in which the thickness of the center of the sheets increases and thus stapling cannot be accurately performed.

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